- It strikes me that Donner when presenting the main argument of his book, namely that Islam started out as a non-distinct religious movement, does not try to counter the verses within the Qur’an that seem, at the very least, to pose the biggest challenge to his argument. Donner, always quoting passages from the Qur’an to aid him in his ecumenical theory of early Islam, does not quote the verse that reads, “And whoever desires other than Islam as religion – never will it be accepted from him” (Q. 3:85), or the verse starting with, “Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam” (Q. 3:19). Those two verses are clearly at odds with his main argument of the book as they clearly state that the teachings of the Qur’an regarded Muhammad’s new preaching as a distinct religion; that salvation cannot be acquired without adhering to it. Yet Donner makes no attempt to either allude to these verses or to counter them. Other flawed assessments of relevant Qur’anic verses relating to his assumptions are also found throughout his book. In addition to the fact that his primary argument presented in the book is significantly shaken by the miss assessment of the relevant Qur’anic verses on the issue, Donner makes other minor arguments that express clearly his incompetence with the most important source he uses for his book. In page 214 he states that the Qur’an is quiet on any mention of the Friday Prayer ritual. The reality is that the Qur’an has a whole chapter dedicated to this ritual. The chapter (62) is even called ‘The Friday’!
- [3:07 PM]Donner again shows his carelessness in analyzing accurately his main piece of evidence. In trying to explain that Abdul Malik elaborated the cultic practices of Muslims into the rigid system we have today, he astonishingly says that we have only “vague” evidence of the change of Qibla, or the direction of prayer, from Jerusalem to Mecca until Abdul Malik’s reign. The Qur’anic evidence, evidence which Donner relies on, makes it clear that the change of Qibla in fact happened during Muhammad’s time -or within three decades of his time, as Donner believes- at the very latest (Q. 2:144). Donner shows his incompetence with the main source of evidence for his arguments again